Traditionally, short-term memory (STM) has been assessed by asking participants to remember words, visual objects, or numbers for a short amount of time before their recall or recognition of those items is tested. However, this focus on memory for past sensory input might have obscured potential theoretical insights into the function of this cognitive faculty. Here, we suggest that STM may have an important role in predicting future sensory input. This reconceptualization of STM may provide a functional explanation for its capacity limitation.

中文翻译：

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预测性大脑的短期记忆容量必须有限

传统上，短期记忆 (STM) 是通过要求参与者在测试对这些项目的回忆或识别之前短时间内记住单词、视觉对象或数字来评估的。然而，这种对过去感官输入记忆的关注可能掩盖了对这种认知能力功能的潜在理论见解。在这里，我们建议 STM 可能在预测未来的感官输入方面发挥重要作用。STM 的这种重新概念化可能为其容量限制提供功能性解释。